brewmeisterintng wrote:I don't know how everyone else is doing it but I craddle my carboy at a 45 degree angle while sitting and shake the crap out of it after I have pitched my yeast starter. I usually get some wort in the airlock which I rinse.I have tried easyeast and was not very pleased with it. I read it was ready to use. WRONG... I endded up with a long lag time and slow fermentation.Keep your chin up... it will get better.

I would seriously rethink this method. One little slip and you could have a serious hospital bill or even death. There are lots of important fluid transfer devices contained in the region of cradling, including the one's less commonly thought about like femoral arteries that move lots of blood.

Get or make a relatively inexpensive aeration device, either with oxygen or using an aquarium pump with an inline microfilter. Either one is safer than placing a big piece of akward glass in your lap and cheaper than the hospital or morgue.

I will keep that in mind and come up with an alterative means of aerating the wort. I really didn't see the harm in it as it was me, the carboy and the chair. Unless the chair was to break, or the integrity of the glass in the carboy to fail, there is no way for it to break. Every time I handle a carboy it is always two handed.

Okay, need some more advice. Here is a brief timeline so far. Brewed on 1.25.07, racked too early to secondary 1.30.07 then I started this thread. I have taken all of your advice and waited it out. I got temp under control by placing in a water bath with an aquarium heater. Maintained at about 65 F. I took a reading last week 2.14.07 and the gravity was 1.016. It was still quite cloudy and fairly effervescent. Took a reading today because I figured I would try and bottle tomorrow if it is ready. I discovered that sometime in the last few days my water bath had gotten up to 73 F!? oops. I had stopped monitering because it had been consistent for a couple weeks. anyways... The predicted target gravity is 1.013 (o.g. was 1.059) and it is now at 1.014. I figure it is done however...

It is still slightly effervesceent, seems to have quite a bit of yeast still in suspension and has the same yeasty taste I originally freaked about, well maybe a little less. Also, it has had mild foam and bubbles on the surface continously for the last few weeks.

So my question. Is there any hope of improving the flavor if I leave it a bit longer? It has been about 3 weeks in secondary (5 days primary). Would the taste be better if the yeast settles out more, and how do I encourage this. Or do I just bottle it and chalk it up to experience. It is not awful tasting, but I wouldn't pay money for it

Sounds done. A few days warmer than ideal won't hurt much after fermentation is mostly complete. Most of the damage occurs when the yeast are warm early in the process. I doubt there is much more that will happen at fermentation temps. It just might need the yeast to drop out to improve, now.

I have to agree with James.
Once you are confident that the fermentation is indeed over and you want to get that beer clear and drop the yeast out in a hurry, I have found that chilling (cold crashing) the beer down to 32 to 40 degF and holding for a few days (7) really helps out a lot. I am actually doing this process right now on an english summer ale that I have kegged. Also, once chilled for around 4 days, you may want to add a fining agent. I usually use brewers geletin to do this. I boil about a half a cup of water for 10/15 minutes then take it off the fire and start to cool it. While cooling the water i'll toss in a tsb of geletin (5 gallon treatment here), and let it hydrate and melt into the water completely. Once this mixture cools to a temp of 120 degf, i slowly start to pour the mixture in, while stirring the beer very gently. When all of the mixture is in, i seal the carboy or keg (apply Co2 to seal the keg), and let the beer sit for about 5 to 7 more days. This should clear up the beer considerably.....pull off a couple of pints and see the difference!

Irish Red Ales need a longer period to age before they start tasting right. I also had some worries when sampling my first Irish Red batch during transfer to secondary--it was really green and bitter tasting. After 2 -3 months of aging, it was kickin !@#. It is amazing how time transforms ales such as Irish Reds.

People have been brewing ale for over 7000 years, with much less knowledge of how yeast, temperature, etc. factor into the attenuation process. I would just let time and nature take its course . . .